Ms Joanne Kissane began the meeting proper with her Registrar’s report, in which she took the time to highlight the findings of the Pharmacy Workforce Survey 2025, which is now in its fourth year. While the response rate was lower than in previous years, Ms Kissane noted the data does offer valuable insights into the composition of the workforce, practice settings and emerging challenges. One major positive was that pharmacists continue to demonstrate, “a strong appetite for upskilling”, something that has been reflected in each of the workforce reports. But while 90 per cent of respondents believe the profession can expand, only 40 per cent believe there is capacity to do so, hence workload and resource constraints continue to be a concern. “The main barriers to optimal care include the workload of pharmacists, medication shortages, administrative burden and staffing shortages,” Ms Kissane explained. Many of the themes that emerged via the survey are already being addressed through the actions and the activities identified in the Workforce Intelligence Report and in the Community Pharmacy Agreement, she added; noting it was “very positive” to see that alignment. She also highlighted the work being done in terms of support for pharmacist wellbeing. “In summary, we have a very committed, adaptable workforce, but they are facing persistent challenges including workforce staffing and vacation.” National leadership is essential and she highlighted the intended appointment of a Chief Pharmaceutical Officer as a hugely positive step. Ongoing tracking of workforce trends and sentiment is essential for evidence-based policy and sustainable workforce planning, she added.
Ms Kissane also noted that Council has been asked to consider the proposed public consultation of PSI safe staffing guidance, pointing out that this was one of the short-term actions that arose in the context of the Workforce Intelligence Report. The intention of these guidelines is to “underpin and support” the pharmacy owner and the superintendent pharmacist in complying with their obligations, she explained; the guidelines will also support the supervising pharmacist and all other pharmacists in meeting their professional responsibilities under the Code of Conduct. “The guidelines are intended to be supportive, they are intended to clarify the responsibilities of those in governance, support ongoing improvements in quality and patient safety . . . and they highlight the link between staff well-being, staff retention and patient safety,” the Registrar told Council. She added that they are intended to highlight the link between staff wellbeing, staff retention and patient safety. Although Council is being asked to approve a draft issued for public consultation, Ms Kissane noted significant consultation has already taken place.
Ms Kissane also outlined key findings from the public consultation on PSI Fees Rules 2026, which clearly illustrated a low level of support for the proposed changes. For example, some 31 per cent of respondents agreed that the registration fee model should be based on cost recovery, ensuring fees reflect the actual cost of the regulatory activities, while 62 per cent disagreed and 7 per cent had no view. Just 11 per cent of respondents agreed that a uniform increase in fees is the most equitable way to ensure a cost recovery model — 83 per cent disagreed and 6 per cent had no view. “The majority strongly opposed uniformed fee hikes seeing it as inequitable and regressive, disproportionately impacting on part-time, early career, career break and lower paid pharmacists,” she said. Just 5 per cent considered an increase in fees necessary to achieve a legitimate public interest objective.
Following the Registrar’s report, Council member Ann McGarry noted her observation that the number of complaints this year was lower than last year, while the number of “concerns” was higher than last year. “Is there any sense that the division of things between concerns and complaints is actually having a meaningful impact?” Ms Kissane responded that it has been a very positive development, and she gave credit to members of the Preliminary Proceedings Committee for working through the backlog of complaints with great efficiency, to the point where the January PPC meeting may need to be postponed as the committee has caught up in terms of the number of complaints — “It’s great progress but a lot of hard work.”
Council member Paula Barry Walsh noted the increased instances of non-compliance with medication management as detailed in the report and queried if there is anything the PSI can do in terms of passing on learnings via the IIOP or its newsletter to “support pharmacists in getting it right”. Ms Kissane said pharmacists are informed of the areas of greatest non-compliance and they are also targeting their inspection resources with a view to ensuring compliance in that particular area — this is leading to increased compliance already. Significant guidance and support is also available on the PSI website.
Also discussed was electronic record keeping in pharmacies, which the PSI has been doing significant work on. Ms Cord Nestor of the PSI noted that the Department of Health had convened a group to action the initiatives of Community Pharmacy Agreement and one of these was the establishment of an electronic controlled drug register.
Ms Kissane then offered a Q4 update on implementation of the year’s Service Plan, in order to reflect the work carried out in the PSI over 2025. The PSI had identified 15 strategic projects to advance in 2025 and also sought to complete nine programmes of work over the year. As of the day of the Council meeting, there were three fully complete projects, with nine projects green, where all the objectives had been met, two amber projects, where most of the objectives have been delivered and one project registering as red where the objectives will not be delivered in 2025. She highlighted the successful rollout of the Common Conditions Service and pharmacist prescribing expansion, as well as the publication of Pricing Transparency Guidelines, and within the PSI, the launch of a new HR strategy, the Climate Action Roadmap, and cloud-based council system. The project highlighted as red was the Business Transformation Project, with Phase 3 hoped to progress in 2026. Ms Kissane also pointed out that the PSI has continued to “communicate and engage and educate” our pharmacists in the context of supporting public health initiatives in Ireland. “It was a very busy year and this is reflected in the activity — I want to acknowledge everyone’s work.” The PSI will provide Council with the action plan for 2026 early in the New Year, Ms Kissane added.
Paula Barry Walsh queried the role of PSI in implementing NIS2 (Network and Information Systems Directive 2), and the potential cost of this. Ms Kissane noted that Council is aware that the PSI has already written to the Department of Health about this last year (2024) but has yet to receive a response to this letter; “We are imminently expecting a letter confirming our appointment as a competent authority, and we have a duty to raise concerns Council would have identified with regard to this appointment.” The PSI has also engaged with other regulators on this, such as the HPRA, and has engaged with consultants to understand PSI’s responsibility under NIS2 — this consultation is being funded by the Department of Health.
A request for approval from Council was sought for the PSI 2026 Budget by Ann McGarry on behalf of the Performance and Resources Committee. Ms McGarry noted the Committee had gone through the budget in “quite a lot of detail and are now happy to recommend it to Council for approval”. It was duly approved.
Dorothy Donovan delivered an update from the Regulatory and Professional Policy (RPP) Committee on behalf of chair Richard Hammond. She noted that the RPP Committee had met on 27 November and arising from that meeting there were four matters before Council — one for information and three for decision. One was the previously discussed Pharmacy Workforce Survey 2025, which identifies “trends, risks and challenges that will hopefully inform policy and strategy and help build data on the pharmacy workforce”, Ms Donovan explained.
The Committee was recommending approval of issuing the Safe Staffing Guidance for public consultation, but Council member Joan Peppard noted the lack of distinction between responsibility and accountability, saying governance is around accountability for a large part. She believed there was a nuance lost between the use of responsibility and accountability — Damhnait Gaughan agreed that the text could be tweaked to reflect this and Ms Kissane said they could make a reasonable amendment. PSI Council President Denis O’Driscoll also pointed out that the Guidance will go to public consultation and come back to Council again so “anything that needs to be added at that juncture can be done so”.
The RPP Committee also recommended approval of amendment to PSI (Education & Training) (Integrated Course) Rules 2014, and Ms Donovan explained that this change is required by reason of changes to the EU Directive 782. This was duly approved, as was the IIOP Work Plan 2026.
A report to Council from the Performance and Resources Committee delivered by Ann McGarry was then given, where a request for approval from Council for the management accounts to 30 September 2025 was sought. Ms McGarry noted that they had originally budgeted for a deficit of around €2 million and “we’re still heading in that general direction”. The accounts were approved by Council without question. Approval of the Reserves Policy was also granted, as was the motion on bank accounts.
In relation to the core funding review, the Committee were seeking approval of the Consultation Report on the proposed PSI Fees Rules 2026 and also approval of PSI Fees Rules 2026. Given the negative feedback, Ms McGarry said the Committee hoped to address some of it in time, but “on balance we felt that the fairest way forward was the original proposal with a staging of the increase . . . we discussed it in great detail and certainly reviewed the consultation report in great detail”. Joan Peppard queried whether they could be more specific in their responses to the feedback, but Ms McGarry noted it could be quite challenging to do that. Pharmacist member Áine Mac Grory said she felt the responses were fine as currently structured. Fellow pharmacist member Margaret Donnelly however added that they had previously discussed how if they had benchmarked this with inflation, the fee increase would be more, and she believed this should be emphasised; “We have caveated it quite well but I am conscious that we want to maintain good uptake and good responses to consultations going forward and for the profession to understand that we are, and we want to be, a compassionate regulator and we do take on board their feedback. This is one where we have had a lot of feedback but we are not making any amends and we need to make it clear that it is a financial imperative.” An appropriate amendment was inserted into the document.
Approval of the HR Strategy 2025-2028 was also granted, as Ms McGarry noted that the committee were very happy that what is in the HR strategy can be linked back to the culture audit.
The report to Council from the Audit and Risk Committee was given by Geraldine Campbell, who sought approval of the PSI’s Safety Statement, which included a number of administrative changes. This approval was granted. President O’Driscoll took the opportunity to thank Ms Campbell given it was her last meeting as Chair, and he noted the significant contribution in terms of her dedication and leadership.
Mr O’Driscoll then delivered a report to Council from the Special Purposes Committee noting the change in rules moving to consensus on decisions, rather than seeking a proposer and seconder. O’Driscoll noted that while the maximum term of office remains at eight years, they are now looking at introducing a ‘fallow’ period, so that the expertise is not lost to the organisation and the Council member in question can return if they so wish.
Approval was then granted for a number of appointments to disciplinary Committees, including an appointment to the PCC Committee and the appointment of a Chair and Acting Chair to the PCC Committee.
The final item was a report from Grainne Power to Council from the Business Transformation Project Programme Board. She noted that in relation to Phase 3 of the project, as the budget for the piece of work possibly exceeds the remaining amount, it has been decided that best practice at this point in time is to “re-tender” for this part of the project to make sure that the executive is getting best value for money. She also pointed out that the PSI can now specify the requirements “with a greater interface of the overall system”. The downside is that this delays the project by seven months in total, “but the benefit is a more robust approach to Phase 3”.
The President closed the meeting by wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and joyful New Year. “We want to reflect on all the hard work that Council, the committees, sub-committees, and the leadership and staff at PSI put into ensuring that we move forward with quite seismic changes to our profession that will make a profound impact in the years going forward,” he said. “At times we’ve made very difficult decisions in order to move our profession forward, and at times ensuring our commitment is well embedded in being an important aspect of the health care system in Ireland.”
Danielle Barron
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